Shanghai, China
“The foundational design concept of the Shanghai Astronomy Museum was to abstractly embody within the architecture some of the fundamental laws of astrophysics, which are the rule in space,” states Ennead Architects Design Partner, Thomas J Wong.
“To the extent possible, we wanted this building to echo the essence of the universe and there are no straight lines or right angles in space! Once we embraced the idea of a set of curvilinear forms, we capitalized on every opportunity to make it the very basis of the building and experience,” he continues.
The Shanghai Astronomy Museum, designed and developed by Ennead Architects, through scale, form, and the manipulation of light, heightens awareness of the fundamental relationship between the sun and the earth’s orbital motion and creates an immersive experience that places visitors in direct engagement with real astronomical phenomena.
Shanghai Astronomy Museum’s design has recently been awarded a 2022 International Architecture Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
The Museum embarks on a visceral experience of the subject matter and celebrates the celestial forms through its powerful architecture, providing a platform for the experience of the Earth’s orbital motion through the building’s astronomical instruments and drawing inspiration from principles of dynamic orbits.
The building form, program sequence, and circulation incorporate the orbital movement, supporting the flow of visitors through the galleries and the experience of the three central features: the Oculus, Sphere, and Inverted Dome.
Drawing from concepts within Beijing’s Temple of Heaven, the architecture of the Museum creates a strong connection between the earth and the heavens: the building is grounded while also espousing a powerful upward momentum that defies gravity and projects uplift.
Supporting this concept is the heroic cantilever of the museum’s leading edge as well as the materiality of the façade, which is composed of two winding architectural ribbons: one clad in earth-bound concrete and GFRC panels, and the other made of faceted anodized aluminum panels, precisely crafted, and abstractly shimmering.
The dialogue between raw, muscular elements that embody immense weight, and the machined precision of engineering marvels repeats itself throughout the design: a massive three-story concrete tripod cradles the glass tension structure of the inverted dome, and the gravity-defying planetarium Sphere gently sits upon a monumental concrete structural dome.
The Sphere is suspended by the roof structure with minimally visible support and allows visitors to experience the form as a weightless mass from below.
A continuous skylight around the Sphere allows direct sunlight to enter and marks the passage of time in the Museum below, with a full circular ring of light realized at the noon hour of the summer solstice.
Similarly, the Oculus at the main entrance to the Museum tracks a circle of sunlight over the course of a day on the ground across the entry plaza and reflecting pool, becoming a veritable sundial.
A multitude of dynamic spatial environments is incorporated throughout the Museum, with the main atrium at the centerpiece and heart of both the architectural and exhibit sequence.
One emerges in this soaring and inspiring space after a sense of compression through the entry procession under the building’s cantilever.
The spiraling ramp draws the gaze upward to the skylights above and embodies the essence of dynamic orbits, both in their form and as the main circulation system.
The Inverted Dome is the culmination of visitors’ exhibit experience and is a powerful spatial experience that physically connects visitors to the vast skies above by facilitating an authentic exposure to both day and night sky.
Within the Dome, views of the neighboring context are restricted as the edge of the Dome cuts off the horizon to focus visitors on the sky.
Project: Shanghai Astronomy Museum
Architects: Ennead Architects, LLP
Design Team: Thomas Wong, V. Guy Maxwell, Grace Chen, Stefan Knust, Anthony Guaraldo, Charles Wolf, Na Sun, Eric Tsui, Jorge Arias, Margarita Calero, Michael Caton, Christina Ciardullo, Eugene Colberg, Regina Jiang, Jörg Kiesow, Weiwei Kuang, Francelle Lim, Xiaoyun Mao, David Monnar, Nikita Payusov, James Rhee, Yong Roh, Miya Ruan, Stephanie Tung, Charles Wong, David Yu, and Fred Zhang
Architects of Record: Shanghai Institute of Architectural Design and Research
Exhibition Designers: Ralph Appelbaum Associates, Inc.
Client: Shanghai Science & Technology Museum
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